Right-wing Israelis celebrate Rafah massacre as Jewish holiday bonfire

Right-wing Israeli public figures and journalists celebrated and mocked the killing of Palestinians in Gaza’s Rafah on Sunday, using the air strikes to mark a religious Jewish holiday.

At least 45 Palestinians, mainly forcibly displaced women and children, were killed in the camp following an Israeli attack, triggering a wave of celebrations online from well-known Israeli extremist figures.

The attack targeted the Tal al-Sultan area, with Gaza’s government media office reporting that the Israeli aircraft used missiles and 2,000-pound bombs to strike the tents in the area.

The attack caused the tents to be engulfed in fire, in an area where around 100,000 people are sheltering.

Social media was awash with jokes from far-right Israelis who mocked and rejoiced at the killing of Palestinian civilians.

Among those who part-took in the taunting was Israeli journalist and politician Yinon Magal, who posted a widely shared video of the aftermath of the attack, which set ablaze dozens of displacement tents.

Men, women and children were burned alive as a result of the fires started by the Israeli bombing.

He captioned the video "the main lighting this year in Rafah", sparking a wave of critical comments from activists.

The comment appears to be in reference to the Jewish holiday of Lag BaOmer, which involves the lighting of bonfires to symbolise spiritual light brought by Shimon bar Yochai, a second-century rabbi.

🧵Israeli figures and popular news channels celebrating the burning of people alive in Rafah.

Context: Today is Lag BaOmer, a Jewish holiday whose main tradition is the lighting of bonfires.

Photo:
Screenshot from Baz News Telegram channel (67.8k sbscrbrs): "Lag BaOmer Rafah" pic.twitter.com/LbgV8LrcyN

— B.M. (@ireallyhateyou) May 26, 2024

The post was later deleted on X where it was originally posted, but stayed up on Telegram, where Magal has over 70,000 followers.

Naveh Dromi, a publicist and journalist for the Israeli i24 and Yedioth Ahronoth news outlets also expressed joy in a post referencing the same video, captioning it "Happy holidays". The post was also later removed.

A well-known influencer and rapper, known by his stage name The Shadow used Telegram to share the videos of mangled bodies being saved from the fire, encouraging others to watch it.

Another Telegram channel seen by The New Arab, titled "Terrorists from a different angle" also reshared the video, along with the caption "bro, listen to me, let the sweet potato stay in the fire for another five minutes, it will turn out delicious".

The channel has over 124,000 subscribers.

The Israeli army said the air strike on Rafah was a "precise" attack to target two senior Hamas officials. The attack came after a ruling by a top UN court on Friday ordered Israel to halt its attack on Rafah.

Israel’s war on Gaza - described as genocide by many international rights groups - has killed over 36,000 Palestinians since October and wounded at least 81,000 others in the same time frame. Gaza's civil defence crews estimate around 10,000 Palestinians remain under the rubble.

The war has wreaked havoc on Gaza’s infrastructure and levelled entire neighbourhoods.